Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different?

Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different? – C.S. Lewis

About 60 years ago, this tree was planted as a small thing. It didn’t grow quickly, but it did keep changing, day by day. It didn’t look like it had changed, until they looked back.

What does that mean?
This is about things moving slowly but relentlessly. A day doesn’t seem very long, but changes do happen. Each day, a little different. A little bit of drift this way or that.

Then, “suddenly” you notice everything is different. Well, it’s been changing the whole time, but you hadn’t noticed until just now. And that is how life tends to come at you.

Consider what has happened in the last year. What about the last decade? Somehow, the changes seem so much greater, don’t they? Especially in the active years, from the time you’re out of college until your kids are out of college.

Whether it is the small changes in a town, a tree, your partner, your kids, your business, or even in you, there is always a little bit of change.

Why is perspective important?
Time is like a moving sidewalk or an escalator. You don’t really notice that you’re moving, except that things around you are changing. Their positions are changing, and you know you must be the one moving, and you have a changing perspective on the world around you.

Time is a very slow moving sidewalk. While there are changes happening all around you, they are so small that they are easily overlooked. But the farther back down the path you look, the more reality differs from your memories. Time has passed, things have changed, as has your perspective.

Beyond that, as time passes, different things become more or less important. The first person you ever had a crush on, would you even admit to it today? Your first true love, how do you feel about that now? Again, looking back, it is way different than it was back then, right?

You may not feel your love today changing, but it is. Will it grow or fade? You’ll know for sure in a few years, perhaps a little sooner, depending on how much changes. But day to day, how can you measure it? That might be something you might want to think about.

Where can I apply this in my life?
Change is everywhere. Slowly, like an ice sheet scraping down a mountain, or perhaps a little quicker. But it keeps changing. Little by little. Like a tree growing, you don’t really notice, until you find a picture from several years ago, and you are amazed at how big it now is, even though it has been that big for a year or more.

As an example, I have been growing my hair out for the last 6 months or so. Not or any reason, I just keep forgetting to get it cut. From one day to the next, you can’t really see much change. But looking back at a photo from a couple months ago, it really is different.

How about clothing styles? Sometimes a completely new style comes out, but usually your closet changes more slowly than that. Do you remember consciously going in and taking out all the recently outdated fashions, or did they stay in there as things slowly changed, until you noticed a few years later?

As I mentioned in an earlier section, love changes as well. You might not notice from day to day, but month to month or year to year, it will change. It can grow stronger or weaker, but it will change. It might be both weaker and stronger, just in different places. Eventually the lust diminishes, but hopefully the heart-to-heart love has grown stronger.

Another way to look at the quote is to make the difference you want to see later in your life. Make the changes a little at a time, day by day. what steps can you take to make small changes in your life today? What is the goal for the long look back?

Think about this. Change will happen. There is no stopping it. Will it be random, or will you apply some of your own influence to help shape what happens? Life has no guarantees, but if you don’t try, you will be at the mercy of random chance. That doesn’t sound good to me.

What will you do to make your life different when you look back on it? All at once, it’s hard. But day by day, change will happen. Is it the change you want, or just something random?